Do you’re feeling youthful than your age? You might stay longer

WEDNESDAY, May 12, 2021 (HealthDay News) – Can feeling young, or at least younger than your actual age, help older people live healthier and longer?

Yes, according to researchers in Germany.

“People who feel chronologically younger than them seem to benefit from their younger subjective age in various ways,” explained study director Markus Wettstein.

When surveying more than 5,000 adults and middle-aged seniors, his team found that feeling younger appears to create a protective force field against stress. And the “connection seems to work in different ways,” said Wettstein, who conducted research at the German Center for Gerontology in Berlin.

On the one hand, he found that reducing stress due to youthful self-awareness can lead to noticeable physical benefits, including warding off the threat of systemic inflammation.

A youthful self-confidence can also positively influence behavior in order to maintain physical and mental well-being.

“People who feel younger [may] engage in health-protecting behaviors, “said Wettstein. For example, they can be more physically active than those who don’t feel quite so young.

Additionally, the perception of being younger could also be a motivating force for self-improvement, which gives people greater “health-promoting” confidence in their ability to do things successfully and effectively.

The average age of the study participants was 64 years. All participants participated in a larger ongoing study on aging and physical and mental health.

Over three years, they were asked how old they felt, how much stress they were experiencing, and how well they could do basic everyday activities such as walking, dressing, and / or bathing.

Overall, those who reported greater stress also showed greater decreases in their ability to perform these routine tasks. And that association generally proved stronger as people got older.

However, the association between stress and disability was significantly weaker among those who reported feeling younger than their real age. In fact, feeling younger turned out to be especially protective of the longer-toothed ones that you actually got.